Fritz 13: To buy or not to buy?

11/30/2011 – "Fritz has changed our lives. For many it is an integral aspect of our
chess experience. But should we stick with Fritz 12 or buy Fritz 13?" On
his web site Carl's Planet, Carl
Portman thinks you should: "We may be living in austere times, but I see
no reason why Fritz 13 can't alleviate some of the gloom and improve the chess
players' lot at the same time." Review.

Review of Fritz 13 by ChessBase

By Carl Portman, BCF County Master

As Fritz 13 hits the streets it does so in austere times. People are buying
what they need as opposed to what they want. Chess players are not exempt from
this and I know of many (including myself) that are giving more consideration
than ever before before spending hard earned cash. Yet amongst the doom and
gloom we still need to have some fun, to enjoy ourselves and if we are able
to, give ourselves the occasional treat.

In
chess terms then the question is should you stick with Fritz 12 or buy Fritz
13? In order to answer this question one needs to ask the question 'What's new
about it? I'll come to that presently but first let me give my opinion on the
Fritz programme for us club and county chess players who this review is primarily
aimed at.

Quite simply, Fritz has changed our lives. For many it is an integral aspect
of our chess experience in terms of preparation for club and tournament games,
for training and self improvement and indeed for analysing your own games to
try to find 'the truth' of the position. I think Nigel Short once said that
we know computers are stronger than us so there's no need to try to prove otherwise.
He said it was like 'entering a fork lift truck into a weight-lifting contest'
– there IS no contest so just accept it. We amateurs are not stupid. We
know that we can't play like Fritz (We don't always want to) but we do use it
to aid and analyse our games. Then there are other benefits. The wonderful database
system where we can locate specific games from millions played with a single
keyboard stroke. Remember when players had to scour the books and newspaper
cuttings to do this? It wasn't that long ago you know. Then there's the multimedia
aspect with hours of training and lessons from the very best masters and Grandmasters
(including Garry Kasparov) on the planet. How much would a single hour with
one of these guys cost?

My favourite element and the one most 'responsible' for consuming many hours
of my life is the ability to play online chess at the Playchess.com web site.
It's brilliant. You can travel around the world in one evening playing people
from Brazil to Birmingham, from New Zealand to New York – whilst sipping
hot coffee and nibbling away at ginger biscuits from the comfort of your own
home. That little button that says 'Would you like another game' is akin to
Santa Claus saying 'Have you been good this year?'...OF COURSE.

So what IS new about Fritz 13? Actually, there is a really groundbreaking development
to tell you about and it's called 'Let's Check'. This is a revolutionary new
feature that is changing the chess world. Users can join a world-wide community
that will build a huge knowledge database for chess. Whenever you analyse a
position to any meaningful depth with your chess engine, Fritz 13 will, if you
allow it, send the main line and evaluation to a central chess server to be
shared by all participant users. Therefore you can find deep analysis for almost
every position you look at – instantly. The days of waiting for your computer
to reach substantial depth to be sure that you are not falling into some kind
of trap are gone.

You can even see the analysis of differing chess engines in seconds which is
a fantastic new development in my opinion. Then there's the marvel of 'Discover
a position' which registers you as an automatic discoverer of a position if
you use a powerful engine to analyse a hitherto unknown position. Let's check
continually updates evaluations given to any position with newer, deeper analysis
and this allows you to 'conquer' chess positions with your name attached to
the newest analysis. This 'Conquer chess positions' is a cool feature that gives
you the opportunity to make a name for yourself on the world stage! You are
even able to add comments to your analysis for the world to see. I can see the
headline now...Kramnik uses the Portman variation of the Petroff Defence after
consulting Let's check. Okay okay, I can dream can't I?

It matters not if you are a beginner or a super GM, you can use this facility
to improve your game. Finally on this, using 'Let's Check' whilst watching top
games live on the Playchess server (did you realise that you could do this –
it's brilliant?) is very informative. You have the latest opening statistics
at your disposal and the results of the most powerful engines and serves logged
on to the central server. Talk about having a personal trainer.

For a demonstration from ChessBase on what 'Let's Check' is all about visit
here.

Fritz 13, like those previous is easy to use and the database has been improved
to Windows Office 2010 standard. This is important as I want database management
to be as quick and easy as possible. I log all of my games into my own personal
database so I can bring them up, print them off, analyse them, use them in training,
etc., whenever I want. It's just so darned useful. When I was at school in the
late seventies I was besotted with chess to the detriment of some of my other
learning but I never believed that we would have access to this sort of chess
material. How things change – and in this case for the better.

Other features on Fritz 13 include an improved engine, excellent board graphics
in 2D and 3D, coaching functions and adjustable playing strength, automatic
analysis of games (a really great function), a database of 1.5 million games
and ten hours of private video instruction by those GM's I was talking about.
Finally – and the real winner for me is a FREE six months premium membership
to the world's largest chess server, Playchess.com.

Should you buy it? Well, let me put this in perspective. For around £40
you get all of the above which will, I guarantee, give every chess player enjoyment
and improve their game if they use it properly. I just bought a round of drinks
for some friends and it cost me nearly £40. I topped up my car with fuel
and that was over £60 and I bought just a few items of food groceries
that cost me £50. None of these will last but Fritz 13 certainly will.
It boils down to one's definition of 'need'. If I want to improve my game and
have hours of fun playing the game I love above any other, then I need Fritz
13. Without it I would feel a little empty. It may 'only' be a computer program
but it's been a great companion in the wee small hours of many an evening.

Before I go, and for the sake of trying my best to be objective, I always try
to find something that I think could be improved upon. There are a few very
minor points such as adding a back button once you have searched for games in
the database to get you back to the main list, and providing a hard copy user
booklet with the disc instead of having to read and/or download it online (which
I really don't enjoy doing). But this is niff-naff and trivia in the wider scheme
of things. No – there are no major issues for me, and if any issues arise
the ChessBase team tell me how something can be done, so it is usually my lack
of competence rather than the program that's to blame. The support is first
class.

Christmas is almost upon us folks, so treat yourself. There's a line in 'A
Christmas Carol' where Bob Cratchet as head of the family takes the first taste
of the Christmas pudding. He slowly masticates, looks to his wife (the tension
is palpable) and declares it to be 'another triumph'. The very same can be said
for Fritz 13 and the ChessBase team are to be heartily congratulated. We may
be living in austere times, but I see no reason why Fritz 13 can't alleviate
some of the gloom and improve the chess players' lot at the same time. Merry
Christmas to one and all.

About
the author

I learned to play chess when I was twelve years old. I was at school, it was
lunchtime and the rain was driving down outside making football impossible.
I decided to check out (pun intended) the nerds in the chess club. It was going
to be boring but there was nothing else to do.

I opened the door... And so it was that I opened a new door to the rest of
my life.

Chess players generally become more confident, have enhanced self-esteem and
are more able to organise their thinking and behaviour. It teaches responsibility
too, after all we don't get to take moves back in life so it's important to
try to make the right decisions for the right reasons. Chess is a fun social
activity that helps bring youngsters together and break down potential barriers.
An example of this is when a youngster aged nine plays a person aged ninety.
In other sports there would be barriers to this encounter (physical fitness,
etc.) but here it's the exercise of the brain that anyone can do, all of their
lives. Quite simply…chess is a gift for life.

I am available to give simultaneous displays at schools. I am prepared to play
up to 30 players at once. I am also available to teach chess to groups or individuals
as necessary. Chess is the game of kings and the king of games. It is proven
to be key to improving thinking and decision making.

When you click on the "To Cart" button you will get a choice
of ordering the program on DVD to be delivered by post or whether you
want it right away as a download from the shop.

Previous articles on Fritz 13 and Let's Check

Fritz 13 and Let's Check at the Women's World Championship25.11.2011 – What do the players in a world
chess championship do immediately after their games? Rush off for dinner?
No. Check their game with the computer? Warmer. Actually in Tirana the
two GMs used, for the first time in such an event, the new feature of
Fritz 13, "Let's Check", to see what spectators from all over the world
had found in their games. Here's
how it is done.

Fritz 13 and Let's Check – Lesson one: getting started31.10.2011 – You have ordered Fritz 13, on
DVD or as a download in the ChessBase Shop. And you have heard a lot about
the new Let's Check function. How do you get started? In our tutorial
series we begin with some very basic instructions on how to activate the
program and then take a few initial steps into the world of cloud computing.
Too daunting? Take a look – it's
easier than you think.

Hoogeveen: Kramnik beats Polgar, leads by a full point20.10.2011 – In round two Vladimir Kramnik
beat Judit Polgar – as usual, we are tempted to say. In twenty classical
encounters Judit still has to win a single one. At the end of this game
Fritz 13 surprised people on Playchess by announcing mate in 45 moves
– on a super-fast spectator machine. In rounds three and four all games
were drawn, but some of them quite interesting. Report
and commentary.

Fritz 13 is now available – let's check who needs it!13.10.2011 – “Success very often is the enemy
of future success," Garry Kasparov warned us some months ago. Changing
the world once is not enough, he said, we needed to do it again. Well,
we are trying. Today we launch Fritz 13, which incorporates a tantalizing
new feature: "Let's Check", which provides communal analysis in the cloud.
You can order it now or download it for instant
access.

See also

9/26/2017 – The final classical game. The finals has been relatively sedate with three draws until now. But it could all end today with one decisive game. Ding Liren has the black pieces today. It's going to be an exciting game. Games kick off at 13:00 CEST (7:00 AM EST) with live commentary from Tbilisi by GMs Evgeny Miroshnichenko and WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili and live updates by our reporters Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal.

See also

7/5/2017 – This is neither prank nor clever wording: Garry Kasparov will be playing in the official St. Louis leg of the Grand Chess Tour from August 14-19, 2017. Please note that this is the Rapid and Blitz competition, just as the ones held in Paris and Levuen these last weeks, and not the classical events. However, this is not an exhibition event, and will determine the official Grand Chess Tour rankings as well as FIDE ratings of the players. Here is the press release.

Video

Tired of spending hours and hours on the boring theory of your favourite opening? Then here is your solution, play an Anti-Sicilian with 3.Bb5 against 2...d6 or 2...Nc6, and 3.d3 against 2...e6. In 60 minutes you will get a crash course in how to avoid mainstream theory and in understanding the ideas of this Anti-Sicilian setup. After these 60 minutes you should be able to survive the Sicilian for a long time, without being bothered by new developments found by engine x supported by an x-core machine. Now that it finally comes down to understanding, let's play chess!